AMX First Test

Driving AMC’s Two-Seater in 1968

In December 1967, several automotive journalists gathered at the relatively new Orange County International Raceway in Irvine, California, to drive something altogether different from American Motors. AMC was making a comeback, as new corporate management was finally adding some fun to what had been a lineup of economical transportation machines. The Classic midsize sedan had been renamed Rebel for the ’67 model year; when equipped with the 343ci Typhoon V-8, it was dubbed one of AMC’s “Now Cars” in buff-book magazine ads. AMC joined the pony car wars with the ’68 Javelin, which offered unique fastback styling, several V-8 options, and a starting price lower than rivals Mustang and Camaro.

AMC’s next move was to go even further from its grandpa-car reputation and build a two-seat sporty car. Called the AMX, after a show car that had generated lots of positive buzz a couple years before (see sidebar), it was a short-wheelbase variant of the Javelin that shared many of the latter’s components. It was the AMX that drew those writers to OCIR in December—four AMXs, in fact, each with a number taped racing-car-style to its door.

Following the day at OCIR, both Motor Trend and Sports Car Graphic gave the AMX a huge amount of editorial space in their Mar. ’68 issues. It’s interesting to note that Trend called the AMX a “two-seater sports car” in the story’s subhead, while SCG, always the purist, asked in the headline, “Is the AMX a true sports car?”

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Most questions of the car’s sportiness faded once the writers got behind the wheel. “If a short-wheelbase, two-seater in the GT tradition is your bag, AMX is a salty little bomb and will really let you know it,” wrote Bill Sanders in MT. “Despite our title, we cannot claim to know exactly what does constitute a sports car,” wrote John Blundsen in SCG, but “we would sum up our appraisal of the AMX by saying that, in our view, it is a very good sports car indeed!” (Blundsen was not among the journos at OCIR. He drove “one of the very first production examples on roads in Michigan and on a private airfield which we ‘borrowed’ for our acceleration times and handling tests.”)

Both magazines tested AMXs fitted with the biggest engine available, the 390ci V-8 that produced 315 hp and 425 lb-ft of torque. MT’s Sanders drove manual- and automatic-transmission-equipped cars; Blundsen drove just an automatic. All test cars had 3.15 rearend gears and E70-14 fiberglass-belted tires. Surprisingly, SCG’s automatic was faster in the quarter-mile: 14.6 seconds at 91 mph compared to the 15.2-second run (at 92 mph) printed in MT for the four-speed. Sanders admitted to getting better times with the automatic, even though they weren’t listed in the specs.

Both men praised the car’s handling. Sanders called it “unusually agile and responsive. Performance is exhilarating under any circumstances; on the dragstrip, on a road course, or on a mundane pleasure ride.” Said Blundsen, “The car is extremely well balanced and can be barreled through a slippery curve at an amazing rate.”

Complaints were few. The taut suspension included in the Go package was a bit too firm over Detroit’s “badly paved streets,” said Blundsen, and the seats “were not the most comfortable in the world, the cushions having had to be kept shallow because of the AMX’s low roof height.” Sanders thought the tach in the dash was “much too small,” requiring “too much attention away from the road.”

And that was it. Otherwise these guys had nothing but good things to say about the AMX. Sanders, in fact, ended his piece by stepping right over the Corvette’s rung on the sports-car ladder and calling the AMX “The Walter Mitty Ferrari.”

AMX Sneak Peek

In 1966, American Motors was struggling to stay alive as the company’s lineup of sensible automobiles held less and less appeal with American buyers. Sales were flagging and dealers were abandoning ship. As Motor Trend Editor Donald MacDonald wrote in the magazine’s May ’66 issue, “It’s difficult to sell economy to a nation that today vicariously motors on a drag strip.”

About the only bright spot on AMC’s horizon was Project IV, four concept cars making the auto show circuit. One in particular really caught the public’s attention: a coupe with trim proportions, a fastback roofline, a sharp-nosed grille, and a rumble seat (called the “Ramble Seat”) tucked under the decklid. It was this car that then Chairman of the Board Robert Evans said demonstrated the vitality and excitement of AMC models to come, and he pushed hard to get it into production. While the Javelin would come first, this concept car, called American Motors Experimental—or AMX—would live on in the two-seater to follow.